The White Rose of Chireiden
by SakuraRurouni
Summary: The kingdom of Makai, ruled by the goddess Shinki, invades the underground city of the satori, a rebellious kingdom that refuses to buckle to Makai's will. For the sake of her empire, there is only one choice to make: Chireiden must burn.
1. Act I, Part 1

Some of you good folks may have seen this fanfiction elsewhere, but for a lot of you, this is your first time. Welcome!

According to the fiction ratings, this piece should fit snugly in the T category, but there will be a few scattered scenes here and there that are... stronger than the usual fare. Not romance or sex, mind you; I mean death and violence. If these are an issue in that any reader is disturbed by the contents, leave a comment and I shall change the rating accordingly.

As for the genre? I know it says "Family/Drama", but more accurately, it should be "Family/War Drama". This is very much a political/historical fiction; I'm an International Relations major, after all. If this kind of thing is your cup o' tea, sit down and have a read!

Alternate names for this fic? I'm tempted to make the working title _Zolst Ligen in Drerd _("You should lie in the earth!"). But no. Though my "friend" Betty actually gave me the idea of Satori Eye Z as the alternate title, so you can probably call it that if you like.

Needless disclaimer: I'm just leasing these characters from ZUN. Thank you for such awesome games, by the way!

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Shall we?

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**The White Rose of Chireiden**

_Act I____ - Before the Former Hell_

___Part 1_

Beneath the land of Gensokyo, Hell blazed. 

This itself was nothing notable, but the problem was that now, Hell was blazing- and so was the rest of the Underground City. The forces of Makai had broken through, and led by the Vermeil Devil's maid, they stormed into the Underground City, and Chireiden. 

Makai's troops were all demons, fitting for the goddess Shinki, lady of Pandaemonium. Chireiden had incurred her wrath by their desire to gain independence. So Shinki had of course sent her troops into the capital, the Underground City, and its federal district of Chireiden. And after taking Chireiden, it would only be a matter of hours before the seat of local governance was taken - the Palace of the Earth Spirits. It was the perfect opportunity, too; Shinki had ensured that there was a distraction of the highest caliber, one that required the attention of Chireiden's entire army. The otherwise fighting youkai and satori of the Underground City were, in other words, miles away when Shinki began her offensive. She had sent a small contingent, a battalion or two, to supposedly poison Chireiden's water supply, and let a bit of false information slip that she had sent her entire army there, to begin a surprise attack on the Underground, which had merited the attention of all of Chireiden's forces, but left their capital wide open to attack. 

And attack Shinki did. Yumeko laughed as, preceded by hordes of spiny, bristling demons, she strode confidently through the smoke into the first of five rings of defense surrounding the Palace. The rings were successively higher and higher, and their entrances were not all in one row. It was a maze of sorts, giving any defender ample time and area to be able to repel attack as invaders fought their way through the rings. But whoever had designed the castle's defenses had not counted on the invaders' sheer, overwhelming numbers. Yumeko had decided, with the help of the strategist Mai, that she could sacrifice ten of her demons for every one citizen of hell and still come out victorious. 

Smoke was billowing everywhere. The houses of the Underground City were sprawling, strewn in a vaguely circumscribed pattern, which surrounded the federal district of Chireiden in a protective sphere. And even further in was the Palace. But Yumeko's troops had taken the Underground City unawares, marching quickly through a back tunnel, a service pathway to Hell, which Shinki's daughter Alice had found one day by pure chance while playing with her dolls. 

So they were able to storm at least the outskirts of the city and quickly start torching the outer ring of houses before anyone was even aware of what was going on. And because all the houses were built of wood and thatch for the most part, the fires quickly spread, engulfing half the city in flames and slowly making its way from the eastern half of the Underground City to the western half, destroying everything in its path and devouring everything with its flame, homes and the youkai living in them alike. 

Making her way through the blazing embers of the inner city, she had been shocked to see her advance force suddenly disappear into the ground. She saw that it was a trap... a spider trap. The Kurodani clan of spider youkai were protecting their city the only way they knew how. And as the trap behind her suddenly sprang, leaving Yumeko and only a guard of about twenty demons at the head of the invasion force, fireballs rained down from the cavern's ceiling. 

The Underground City was, after all, an immense cave, all lit up by the Hell of Blazing Fires. All sorts of creatures lived here. 

Yumeko grit her teeth and jumped to the side, straight into one of the burning houses. Yoriko, the leader of the Kurodani clan, followed her with her sight, surprised. Behind her, her small troop of spider youkai, all members of the Kurodani house, tried to maintain order as youkai ran to and fro in and out of the flames, hauling buckets of water back and forth to their burning homes- or if they were wiser, fleeing the burning city entirely. Of course, Yoriko could not have known that Yumeko's forces were so many that by this point, they had encircled the entire Underground City. They were only waiting on Yumeko's word to strike- 

And there it was. Yumeko had made her way to the top of the water tower, and while Yoriko's attention had been divided between wondering where she was and trying to keep calm, Yumeko had climbed to the top of the tower and set off a signal flare. It was one of the new spellcards, a minor one by modern standards; but in those days, when spellcards were just getting started, this one was magnificent; a sparkling green flame that rocketed upwards to the ceiling, visible for miles around.

At that point, the entire demon army let out a simultaneous roar and began stamping their feet. Shrieking, cawing, bellowing, squawking- Shinki's troops began their march into the burning city, their feet and claws thudding against the ground in such a way that the earth shook beneath them. The tremor passed through the entire city, making its residents scream even more than they had been before. 

"What is going-" and then a knife thudded into the back of Yoriko's neck and went right through. She didn't even have a chance to scream. She fell, headfirst into the hole she had herself helped dig to trap the soldiers. Yumeko landed lightly on the ground, and the Kurodani clan shrank back from her, their backs to the pit. 

Yumeko smiled at them and took out a dozen knives from her apron. 

In less than thirty seconds, Yumeko's personal invasion force was marching on, stamping on the corpses of the Kurodani clan as they went. Only Yoriko's daughter Yamame saw, hidden in the shadow of a large rock in the middle of one of the streets of Chireiden. Yumeko walked past and her eyes looked over her; if she saw Yamame, she gave no indication of it, and she continued her march into the center of the city. 

Yamame trembled, then turned back down the street and ran as fast and as far as she could to one of her little spider-holes, where she would end up hiding for the rest of the invasion. 

Despite this display of power from Yumeko and her guard, the other residents of the Underground also put up some resistance. After marching on from the Kurodani clan's massacre and fighting their way past the armed citizens who had hastily formed a militia of sorts to stop her progress, Yumeko encountered the princess of the bridge, the only stone bridge that united the living area of the Underground City with the federal district of Chireiden, spanning the Mizuhashi Chasm. Pandora Mizuhashi, the hereditary keeper of the bridge and recent mother, saw her approaching. She looked down at the stones beneath her feet, the bridge that she had spent her whole life guarding, and the bridge which her daughter would have otherwise inherited, had it not been for this. 

Pandora raised her lance, the spear of the Mizuhashi family. With just one blow, the cornerstone of the bridge would shatter, and the entire thing would go down. She whispered a final prayer for her young daughter, then brought it down, seemingly not noticing the knife in between her eyes that Yumeko had just thrown. Her eyes still looking down, the lance slipped from her hands and Pandora toppled over, falling to an inglorious final resting place at the bottom of the chasm, the lance falling with her, clattering against the sides of the chasm as it fell. 

And so it came to pass that Yumeko had made it to the outer, fifth ring of defense, blocked by an enormous stone door which had been closed to her. Her huge army was busy looting and torching the city, slowly making their way inwards. Yumeko was poised to start marching on the Palace itself. Fireballs that were still raining down from above had taken out a good amount of her demons, though, which was worrisome. 

Still, she decided to march on. First mistake. Yumeko had taken all of two steps when suddenly, a wooooooshing sound was heard, and a purple-brown-white flash appeared- 

"I'm Suika the strong, and now I'm going to kill you for destroying this city!" 

"That's just Suika?" Yumeko whispered aloud in her hiding place. As soon as the oni had appeared, Yumeko had dived to the side again, letting her men take care of it. This would have worried her if she had thought that they had the slightest chance of winning, or else they might have lived to tell the tale. Suika was now at least twelve meters tall, swinging into the hordes of demons with her chains and fists, devastating them with each blow. Yumeko turned her head slightly, peering over the stone gate behind which she was hidden, and watched as Suika wreaked havoc. "If that's just Suika, then I really don't want to meet Yuugi-" 

_"Vermilion Sign - Last Moment of the Corpse!"  
_

_"Cerulean Sign - Traitor's Honor!"_

Yumeko turned all the way around just in time to see two shadowy figures divebomb from the darkness above Suika and release two devastating blasts of energy, one red and one blue, straight at the oni. Caught unawares, Suika was sent flying back at least five meters. Her hair was set on fire at the same time that her legs were now frozen. The confused oni saw that she had been defeated, and she tried to flee, but instead, Suika toppled over and was summarily overrun by hordes of demons. Still, she managed to dissolve herself just in time before any of the injuries, minor though they may be to an oni, accumulated. 

And just like that, Suika was defeated. 

Yumeko emerged, making sure to do it from behind her troops instead of the stalagmite she had been hiding behind. "Well done, Yuki and Mai." 

The two magicians turned to look at the maid and smiled as one. "We just got lucky," Mai said simply, brushing her blue hair back with a hand. "Most people down here have never seen or heard of a spellcard, our reports said. I just came down here to the field to see if it was true." 

Both Yuki and Mai were early adopters of the new spellcard system. Yumeko hadn't approved, until she saw what they could do for Alice's rather destructive tantrums, at which point she had agreed to let Yuki and Mai practice their new techniques so long as they promised that once they got the hang of it, they would teach Alice how do use them. But Makai had been rather forwards for its time; very other few places in the aboveground had adopted the new spellcard system. It seems that the Underground City hadn't even heard of them, much less how to defend against them, which meant- 

"They don't know that they have to graze or dodge, you see," Yuki continued, in line with Yumeko's train of thought. "If we catch them unawares, we can take down the castle's defenders fairly easily, I'll bet. What do you think, Mai?" 

Mai nodded. "What do you want us to do, then, Yumeko?" 

Yumeko considered- or was about to, when she saw one of her demons fall to a well-aimed fireball from up above. She glared upwards, up to the roof of the cavern. "Up there. We've been pelted by fireballs ever since we got here. Take them out, and more importantly-" here she looked at Yuki- "Take their place. Rain down fireballs upon the Palace of the Earth Spirits. As for you, Mai, help Yuki take the place of... whoever the hell it is that's throwing fireballs, and after you're done, circle above me and my men and rain down icicles on whomever crosses our path." 

Yuki and Mai backed up, put their feet together, and saluted. "Understood." And then they took off, into the air. She looked to the task at hand; breaking the stone door that blocked her path. With a wave of her hand, she put her demon forces to the task, and waited behind them as they systematically demolished the door. 

In the meantime, Yumeko kept her head up, watching Yuki's ascent into the darkness. Keeping focused on the small flames beneath Yuki's feet that propelled her upwards and through the air, Yumeko watched as Yuki finally reached the top of the ceiling, and was now going along, half floating and half maneuvering around the enormous stalactites that portruded from the roof of the cavern. She made a mental note, wondering why these defenders from the roof weren't using the stalactites as weapons, and she concluded that they must not be terribly strong, or at least not strong enough to lodge these stalactites from their place. 

And they weren't. Yuki finally found them. They were a horde of Tsurube-otoshi, riding up to the roof in buckets attatched to a rather complex pulley system, and they were throwing fireballs at the demonic horde, taking potshots at them. Yumeko noted, dryly, that they might have been spreading even more flames, but then she reasoned that they could probably shoot a fireball down at her troops and still manage to hit one; such were their numbers. 

Yuki advanced on them, hiding in the shadow of a stalactite. Up there, the smoke did not reach, but the flames of the city were the only thing lighting up the cavern, as the Hell of Blazing Fires' magnificent obsidian gates were being shut against intruders. The progress was slow, and Yumeko could tell that they were preparing to barricade themselves in, or at least keep the Hell of Blazing Fires out of the hands of Shinki's hordes. 

But then she heard a shout; Luize the observer had noticed. Carried aloft by two spellcards grafted to the bottom of the soles of her shoes, Luize was the most adept flier in all of Makai, and with her arrows, she struck down an enormous amount of youkai, fleeing the Underground City and not realizing that she was bearing down upon them in the air. It seemed that most people in the Underground City had never seen anyone fly. 

In any case. Luize was now alerting the demonic hordes to the obsidian gates, which were slowly, inexorably, swinging shut. A mass roar, and then the entire western half of the demon army swung to the right, rushing at the obsidian gates to keep them open. 

While all this was going on, the eastern half was still getting struck down by fireballs. But then they stopped. Yumeko turned her attention upwards again just as a scream resonated from the roof of the cavern. Yuki had, with several slashes of a blazing dagger, begun to cut down the tough rope that kept the tribe of Tsurube-otoshi suspended in the air on their pulley system. One yank, and the Tsurube-otoshi screamed as they shook on the rope. Three of them tried to make their way to the witch, and several of them aimed fireballs at Yuki, ready to shoot her down. 

But they never got the chance, because Yuki had finally made the rope break. It was rapidly tearing apart, strained by the weight of so many Tsurube-otoshi in their buckets. And then it gave out entirely. Yuki quickly released the rope, to not get rope burn, as the Tsurube-otoshi, still attatched to the rope and otherwise unable to keep themselves above the ground, plummeted to the stalagmite-covered floor below. Some of the Tsurube-otoshi died from the fall; some of them were impaled on the stalagmites; some were smashed against the rocks. 

Not a one of them got back up. 

Yumeko flashed a congratulatory thumbs-up at the ceiling, and Yuki noticed it and gave a strained smile in reply. Then she disappeared into the maze of stalactites, to carry out the second phase of her orders. 

Just then, the maid heard a crashing sound. She turned just in time to see the five-meter-tall door, as well as the surrounding wall, crumble entirely at the claws of her demon guard. The outer wall had been fortified to the point that it was about six feet thick, but now she had breached it. 

"I doubt the rest of the walls are as fortified," Yumeko said aloud to herself. "Usually, the outermost wall is always the strongest, because it's made to withstand barrages of all kinds." She stepped over the rubble, her boots crunching against the broken rocks. Inside the wall, she found that breathing was a bit easier, because embers from burning houses weren't flying in the air every which way, and there wasn't much smoke in the fifth ring yet, though it was still hot. 

Behind her, her demon hordes swarmed into the breach, spreading around the ring, torching everything flammable they could find. It seemed that in comparison to the Underground City, which had been attacked unawares, Chireiden itself had had plenty of time to react, and everyone there was gone, doubtlessly having barricaded themselves in the center. Yumeko raised her eyes, eyeing the towering turrets and palisades of the Palace of the Earth Spirits. 

A flash of pink. Yumeko blinked and squinted. Was that just a stray ember she had seen? 

But she didn't have enough time to consider it any further. Because a new threat had arisen. Sudden screeching was heard to her left; Yumeko wrenched her attention away just in time to see the enormous Yuugi Hoshiguma emerging from around the corner, armed with chains on her arms, a grin on her face, and an enormous mace in her right hand (not to mention a sake dish in the other). 

"Aah, you're Shinki's maid, ain't ya?" Yuugi laughed even as she smashed a demon's head into the wall. "It's a nice day for fightin', ain't it? I don't suppose you're strong, eh?" 

Yumeko grinned. Yuugi was a bit taller than she was, though Yumeko was over six feet tall. They shared the same hair, too. And the same lust for fighting. Though she had a horn in the middle of her forehead... Yumeko figured that this was Yuugi, the other oni she had been warned about. 'Yuugi The Strong.' The maid drew some knives from her apron. "Of course I am!" 

Yuugi winked, kicking a demon into the air as she did so with as much effort as Yumeko would use to lift a feather. "Good! I would invite you to get drunk with me, but when I have an opportunity to fight someone strong..." Yuugi yawned as she set her dish of sake down and thrust her fist into a demon's skull. She wiped her hand clean of gore on the wall. "You understand. I hope you're stronger than these guys, though." 

Yumeko took a deep breath, then smirked. If Yuugi, an oni, was putting her sake dish to the side... then she was deadly serious. She drew a longer knife, a falchion, from the inside of her right boot. 

"But of course I am, oni!" And with that, Yumeko threw herself into battle against Yuugi. 

Comments? Criticisms? Quiversful of arrows ready to strike me down for all the adverbs I used and haven't edited out? I welcome them all. Tell me what you think!


	2. Act I, Part 2

It's another update! I'll try my best to get these out on Thursdays, so please sit tight~

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"What are you doing there? Get away from the window!" The young satori suddenly felt herself forcibly pulled away from the windowsill. It was rough, not the way she was used to being treated.

She turned and stared at her father questioningly. "_Quisto_? What is it, _papá_?"

Tetsuji Komeiji looked worried. Really worried. His third eye looked her over, rolling in its purple socket. "Sorry for scaring you, but we have to get out of here. We have to evacuate the _Palazzo_. Where's your _sorella_? I can't hear her thoughts."

The pink-haired girl pointed upwards. "She went upstairs to see what was going on."

"_Di sopra_?" Tetsuji's forcibly calm expression gave way to visible panic. "_Perché_- tch." Tetsuji cut himself off and looked at the nearest staircase. "Principessa, listen to me." He kneeled down in front of his daughter and put his hands on her shoulders. "Koishi, I want you to go downstairs to the fourth floor as fast as you can. Remember that little hollow tunnel-thing behind the painting of your mother in Miyani's study?"

Koishi nodded dutifully, her pink hair swishing as she did so. "_Buono_," Tetsuji said. "Go there and hide. Be sure to bring some food or something, maybe an orange or some rice. Go there, and stay inside the tunnel. I'll be there in less than ten minutes with Satori. If we don't make it... then lock the entrance and don't come out until you hear that everything's quiet. _Capisce_, Koishi? Stay in there until everything's quiet outside, then you can come out. _Capisce_?"

The little satori nodded. "_Capisco_." Her father released her and got to his feet. "I'll be down there with Satori in ten minutes, okay? _Dieci minuto_." He bent over and kissed his daughter's pink hair. "_Andare_! _Correre_!" he said, and took off running up the stairs.

Koishi stood there, her little feet not moving. She had seen the fear in her father's thoughts, but she didn't understand it. Still, she was about to head downstairs, just when-

An uproar from outside, down below. Koishi ran up to the windowsill again and looked down to take in the sight.

Krrraaaanggggg!

Metal struck metal as the maid met the oni on the battlefield. Her falchion slammed down onto the bar of the mace, shock waves running through the hands of both women. Digging in their feet, they bent to the task of trying to push one another backward.

Both were youkai in their prime, well-matched. Yumeko allowed herself to be pushed back a pace, then she retaliated with a roar, sending Yuugi skidding across the ground, plowing two furrows into the stone ground.

Suddenly the oni whipped her chain about her opponent's feet, catching the maid unawares and crashing her to the rock.

The falchion came thrusting and slicing through the chains, its point punching a small hole in Yuugi's chest. "First blood," Yumeko hissed, not wanting to waste her precious breath, but Yuugi tore the chain's link to her manacle off and leapt backward, a hand covering the bleeding hole in her chest. Yumeko tore the chain from her body and came after her adversary, whirling it.

She flung the chain and Yuugi jumped to one side, the metal weight whacking her side painfully as it sailed by. She stabbed downward in an attempt to crush Yumeko's foot and lame her, but the maid moved quickly, a spike of the mace tearing the side of her foot. Ignoring the wound, she stamped down on the mace, trapping it against the ground.

Flicking up the huge falchion, she laid Yuugi's right hand bare to the bone. Yuugi fell down, but only to get a favorable angle to aim her second chain. Whirling it about her hand, she came up, battering the maid's face with the chain links. They broke and circled, the mace probing, the falchion seeking.

Then the chain shot up, enveloping Yumeko's head, followed by a fistful of gritty dirt which the oni flung into her eyes. Yuugi had no time to swing her huge mace, so she hit Yumeko hard on the side of her head with the mace butt.

The maid fell hard, blinking and trying to rip the chains from her face. Yuugi raised the mace for the kill, but the maid rolled over. Folding her body into a curled-up position, Yumeko hauled sharply on the chain and Yuugi stumbled forward, her back bent.

As she fell toward Yumeko, the maid lashed out with her uninjured foot, smacking her metal-tipped boot into the oni's nose with a sickening thud. Yuugi fell backward.

Yumeko struggled upright, tearing herself free of the chains, and quickly wiped the grit from her eyes. From flat on her back Yuugi saw her opponent bearing down on her, falchion upraised. She shoved the mace out in front of her to counter the weapon's swing, and Yumeko's blade sheared right through three of the spikes, which zinged off elsewhere.

Yumeko towered over Yuugi like a giant stalagmite. As the oni tried to rise, she kicked her flat again.

The pandemonium which had rung through the area when the maid and the oni had first begun to fight fell hushed. Every eye was on Yumeko, standing over her enemy, her eyes lit up with the glow of someone who was about to take a life, and more importantly, enjoy it.

Kicking the chain to one side, she stamped down hard on the mace shaft. It broke with a loud crack, leaving Yuugi with a handful of splinters. Her eyes bright, she smiled down at the oni and licked her lips.

"It seems I won, oni."

For the first time in her life, Yuugi Hoshiguma felt cold fear. She tried to drag herself backward, but Yumeko's powerful hands seized her and hauled her up until their faces were almost touching. The maid's voice rang in her ears.

"What's your name, oni?"

Yuugi grit her teeth. "... Yuugi Hoshiguma... the strong."

"I see. My name is Yumeko, head maid to Shinki, goddess of Makai. Will you surrender?"

Yuugi finally looked into Yumeko's eyes, flinching as she did so. One word escaped the oni's lips and echoed around the silent fifth ring. One word that Yuugi wasn't likely to forget anytime soon.

"... yes."

The next thing everyone heard was the thud of Yuugi's body being tossed to the floor as an aside, like a doll. Yumeko picked up her falchion from the cold rock of the ground, pointing with it at the Palace of the Earth Spirits.

"CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGE!"

The spell over the Palace's guard was broken. They had been stunned into a pause, as had the demons, but now the fighting resumed with a roar. The arrow slits suddenly burst out of their camouflaged coverings and began to cut down the hordes of demons. For their part, a hail of arrows and slingstones shot out over the crowd of demons as they slowly made their way around the ring and to the next gate, which the guard tried to keep closed. With every charge at the gate, the defenders braced themselves against it. Though it was only a matter of time until her troops made it through the fourth ring's gate, and pushed their way into the very heart of Chireiden.

Yumeko realized that though she could sacrifice ten of her demons for every one citizen of hell and still come out victorious, these rings of defense against the Palace were quite a good idea in that they funneled her armies into six-meter-wide streets where numbers meant nothing. In these rings, a few could easily defend against a many. Yumeko settled on the idea of a pyrrhic victory at best. But she was still going to win.

The maid turned to look at the fallen form of Yuugi Hoshiguma. Yuugi was bent over, her face in her hands, her right hand a bloody mess, and her arms on her knees. She couldn't see her face. Her dish of sake lay there, ignored; her mace lay broken in two pieces as well. Her chains lay at her feet, though the manacles were still attached to her arms and legs.

"..." Yumeko felt something akin to pity, though the feeling didn't last long. She realized that she had effectively shattered that oni's pride, that she had stripped her of her honor.

The maid considered this, even as her roaring army charged the almost-splintered gate.

"... get stronger, Yuugi. Then you can come back and fight me again someday, and reclaim your title of 'The Strong'."

And with that reassurance, Yumeko was able to push the idea out of her mind. She distracted herself by turning her attention to other pressing matters. "... actually, where the hell is Mai? I could use her help right now." She looked up, but instead of seeing the witch's blue hair, she saw a flash of pink again. Yumeko focused on it, eyeing it and seeing that it was actually the hair color of one of one of those satori living in the Palace of the Earth Spirits.

And Yumeko's orders had been to exterminate every satori in Chireiden.

The maid picked up a javelin, which had doubtless been left lying on the ground by some demon in his rush to charge the gate. She brushed the dust off of it and tested its weight. Acceptable. Yumeko made her way outside of the rings entirely, to a small clearing which was now devoid of any Underground life right outside of the entrance to the fifth ring. She kept her eyes on the pink head she had spotted, poking above the windowsill, on the seventh floor of the Palace.

One hand out straight, the other wide outstretched, balancing the javelin, the maid did a hop-skipping sideways run right across the ground. Her boots thudded against the stone ground as she gained momentum, one eye centered firmly on the high target, and she let out an almighty yell as she hurled the weapon with all her strength. It whistled up through the cool undergound air, up, up, with breathtaking speed, directly at its target-

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The Italian used in this chapter should be relatively elementary, but if you want to use Google Translate, be my guest. Still trying to get the hang of this site's document manager, here...

Hope you enjoyed this update, cliffhanger or no! Reviews, comments, and the like are all accepted~


	3. Act I, Part 3

Ack, missed my Thursday deadline by about two hours. My bad. I was busy playing KoL and doing some readings on Globalization. Back to this fic!

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Koishi saw it coming. She was paralyzed. She couldn't move. Realization invaded her senses just then with a shock of terror as her awful position dawned on her. But she still could not move. 

"Koishi? KOISHI!" 

A scream. Miyani Komeiji, Koishi's older cousin - and more importantly, the Queen of Chireiden - had heard the murderous thoughts of the maid. Miyani was the queen for a reason; her Third Eye was the keenest in all of Chireiden, and it was said she could detect the thoughts of a firefly from a mile away. But now, here she was. Miyani, who was Koishi's older cousin, who sometimes took her and her sister Satori on cat-cart rides through the streets of Chireiden, laughing and hollering as they went. But now, here she was. Miyani, who was the most compassionate ruler of Chireiden they had had in centuries, who had first conceived the idea of officially splitting apart from Makai and ending the oppression of her people.

But now, here she was, a javelin growing out of her neck on either side, having pushed Koishi out of the way. Miyani turned her weak gaze to Koishi and raised a trembling hand to Koishi's cheek, brushing aside a strand of pink hair.

"_Principessa_, get out of here."

And then Miyani fell dead on the carpet at Koishi's feet, her hand clipping the young satori's shoulder and bringing her tumbling down as well. Koishi looked at Miyani, not understanding. She poked Miyani with her finger. "Miyani? Come on, _andiamo_. Let's go. Get up, get up. Come on. _Andiamo_. Wake up."

Miyani didn't move.

It was then that Koishi saw Miyani's Third Eye. Bright yellow, with a golden iris in it. It was the most powerful Third Eye any satori had possessed in centuries. Miyani used it expertly and effortlessly, and her Third Eye was always whizzing around in its socket, taking in everyone and everything, evaluating everyone's thoughts and intentions simultaneously and making according judgments, always acting in her people's best interests.

Now that Third Eye was bleeding. It was still open, of course, but the nerves and delicate blood vessels within it had burst, engorging it with blood. The iris was literally swimming in it. Koishi poked it. The Third Eye burst, exploding with blood, caking Koishi's hair, shirt, skirt, and Third Eye with Miyani's blood.

With a sob of horror, Koishi heaved her cousin's body off herself and fled. 

Yumeko grinned. The pink head had gone down. Her javelin had met its target, or as far as she could tell. Once she got inside the Palace, she would be able to confirm her kill. The first of many, of course. She was looking forward to slaughtering all the satori, and wondered how good of a fight they would put up. They were apparently quite good at evading direct attacks, so Yumeko wondered how she would defeat someone who could read all her moves in her mind and act accordingly.

_A battle with someone who could match my every move..._

A slow smile spread across Yumeko's face.

_Well, that'd certainly be fun to try out someday._

A roar of joy interrupted her fantasies. Somewhere within the rings, Yumeko's eastern half of the army had taken the third ring and were now swarming into it. Yumeko had no real desire to throw herself into that particular fray, so she stayed outside, waiting for them to take the first ring before going in. Still, she wasn't going to run out of demons anytime soon; even now, they kept pouring into the fifth ring, and thousands more were still pillaging the Underground City.

"Yumeko, Yumeko!" Mai alighted in front of the maid and gave her a short bow. "Sara wanted to send word to you!"

Yumeko nodded. "Speak."

"Well, the obsidian gate has been halted. The Hell of Blazing Fires remains open to our men, though they're being attacked rather brutally by the hordes of hellcrows that are striking at them. Still, it's only a matter of time. Commander - er, Sara - waits for your orders."

The maid considered for a moment, her mind piecing together what she would need. "Hmm... I have it. Mai!" Mai stood up straight. "Yes, Yumeko?"

"Tell Sara to keep going until the entire Hell of Blazing Fires is securely in our hands except for the Palace entrance to it. Then when I give the signal, attack the Palace from the eastern side and block all the exits. Then go in and go down, make sure there aren't any escape tunnels or something. I don't want a single satori to get away. In fact-" Yumeko grinned- "I want no prisoners."

"But what about the satori themselves?" Mai asked, breaking protocol a bit. "They can read our minds! Heck, a few of them might be able to hear us right now!"

Yumeko shook her head, repeating something she had heard from Luize's observation reports. "No satori can hear the thoughts of a person at a large distance. We're at least two miles from the Palace, and they've doubtless holed up in their hiding places hoping that we won't find them. We're fine. As to that, though... let me take care of it. While you take the ground floor and the dungeons, I'll go in with my men and climb upwards. Make sure they're all trapped above the first floor. Tell Luize to be on the watch and shoot down anyone who attempts to fly- though I doubt that'll happen. These people are completely backwards; I'll bet they've never even heard of spellcards. I'll even send my men to climb on the outside and barge into the fifth floor, so as we push them upwards, they get killed even more quickly."

Mai put her feet together and saluted. She was just flying off when Yumeko called out for her again. "Oh, and Mai!"

The blue-haired witch turned in midair. Yumeko noted that though her wings were largely vestigial, they were slowly becoming visibly stronger to anyone who was good at observing. And Yumeko was very, very good at observing. "Mai, go tell Yuki to start raining down stalactites on the Palace. And after you deliver your message to Sara, you're going up there to help her. I want complete aerial support while I march in. And besides..." Yumeko winked. "Stalactites can't think. No satori will ever be able to see them coming."

Mai nodded and flew off. Somewhere in the distance, a roar. Yumeko figured that her men must have broken through into the second ring. Soon, all of Chireiden would be theirs. Then a rocky plain, and finally-

"The Palace of the Earth Spirits," Yumeko said aloud to no one in particular. She looked up at the open windows of the Palace and smiled. Soon, her master would be in control of Chireiden again, and Shinki's great power would be feared throughout all Gensokyo. 

Koishi ran. Or tried. Several times, she stumbled in her haste to get away, to put distance between herself and Miyani's corpse. As she came down the stairs from the sixth floor, she tripped over the cords of her Third Eye and fell face forward into a drapery, pulling it down with her. The hyperventilating little satori took the chance to burrow into the drapery, cleaning off as much of Miyani's blood as she possibly could. Then she came out, looking and feeling slightly better.

But then the memory of Miyani with her throat ripped open by that javelin came back to her, and Koishi reeled back onto the drapery again, holding her head and moaning softly.

"Miyani," Koishi murmured. "Miyani, Miyani. Wake up." She wrapped her arms around her knees and curled up. "_Per favore_, wake up..."

Shouts from around the corner, at the bottom of the staircase, pulled her out of her murmurings. Koishi got to her feet and stepped down, now on the fifth floor. Satori were running back and forth, adding verbal shouts to their mental screams. Koishi heard them both simultaneously, and was rather dazed at all that was going on. The Palace of the Earth Spirits was largely a quiet place, as entire conversations could be had between the satori nobility and royalty inside their heads, by each satori reading the other's mind. Rarely was there a need to use one's voice around this place, but now, the entire Palace was in chaos. Dozens of satori ran to and fro, sometimes accompanied by their youkai servants, trying to get all their possessions in order, their Third Eyes whirling in their eye sockets as they tried to make sense of the matter.

Koishi was part of all of this. She heard someone thinking, "Oh, but what will happen to my furnishings? My furnishings, which I've spent so much time on..." Someone else, she heard thinking, "Gotta find a way to get out of here. I'm not going to trapped with the rest of these!" And still another, she heard thinking, "If I can just make it to the thirteenth floor of the _Palazzo_, I might be able to use that parachute thing to get out of here..."

She blinked. Looking down at the red stains on her shirt, she instantly blanked her mind out and passed unseen through the crowd of rushing nobles. She didn't want them to know about-

"_Morta_?"

She froze in her steps.

"Miyani's dead?" Someone asked aloud.

Koishi looked at the ground.

"Miyani's DEAD!" someone shrieked. "She's dead, oh my god, what are we going to do?"

"The queen is dead?" "_Dannazione_! The queen is dead!" "What do we do now?" "Surrender! _Arrendersi_, it's our only chance. Maybe this way, we won't get murdered in our own _palazzo_!" "NO! We have to stand and fight. We can't let them take the Palace without a fight!" "Says you!" "Look who's talking. 'Maybe this way, we won't die?' No, we have to take a stand." "Oh, just get us out of here, someone!" "_Andiamo_, there's got to be a way out of this..." And all of it aloud, in very loud voices. The turmoil within their minds was even worse, especially as most of the young nobles didn't seem to understand the gravity of the situation. The few older nobles that were amongst this crowd did their best to calm everyone down, but to no avail.

Koishi quickly wove her way through the crowd and past them to the staircase leading to the fourth floor.

"What are you doing, Koishi?" A male satori, one of her many cousins, came up the stairs and passed Koishi. "Why are you going downstairs? The demon army's coming up! We have to climb as high as we can!" He grabbed her hand and tried to pull her upwards and along with him.

"No!" Koishi resisted, pulling her hand out of his grip. "_Papà_ told me to hide on the fourth floor!"

The young man looked at her, panicked. "Suit yourself!" he declared, and let go of her.

Koishi took her chance to push downwards, past the sudden rush of satori running upwards, away from the invading army. Though tiny, she refused to be trampled, and she pushed - "_scusi_" - her way downwards - "pardon me" - through the influx. Buffeted on all sides, she squeezed her tiny frame through the rush, and made it down the stairs. It was the fourth floor.

"Miyani's study," Koishi said aloud, and looked around frantically. There were still many satori on this floor, packed in around the staircases and the stained-glass windows. And not only satori, but a ton of youkai from Chireiden too. Koishi heard their thoughts and paid them no heed. None of them were a threat to any good satori. But where was _her_ Satori, her older sister?

"Papà will find her," she said aloud. Then she raced down the hallways, bumping into refugees and refusing to stop even to beg pardon this time. She maneuvered her way past a group of mouse youkai and rattled the doorknob to Miyani's study.

"... no! It's locked?" The little girl sighed and gave up. There was no way in-

No, there was, Koishi realized. The head cook's keys. He had a set of keys in the kitchen, for getting into all of the rooms of the palace to deliver room service to the satori nobles that preferred to dine in their apartments. She and her sister had borrowed them before to pull all sorts of pranks on the adults. Failing that, she could always grab one of the knives in the kitchen and force her way in, she figured.

The kitchen was on the first floor, but what did that matter? Koishi immediately turned and raced back down to the main staircase, but instead of fleeing as high as she could up the palace stairs, she pushed her way downwards. Again she had to brave the crushing of youkai and satori alike as they shoved past her. But Koishi was small, and squeezed into every crevice she could find until she was on the third floor landing.

The third floor was even worse than the one before it. It was packed with satori and youkai, all yelling and demanding. The youkai must have come from outside, from Chireiden and the rest of the Underground City... how far had the invaders come, anyway? Koishi had seen them, led by that red maid, all the way into the fourth circle, but surely they had been stopped by their imperial guard?

Either way, she had to get those keys. Or a place to hide. Here, she wouldn't find either one. So she plunged into the crowd, ignoring the pain and crushing, paying no attention to the occasional person who tried to hold on to her and say, "You're going the wrong way!" and the nagging echo of her name being yelled after her.

She reached the stairs to the second floor and heard even more screaming and shouting. Koishi was sick of being crushed by now, so she forced her way through the bars on the staircase and slid down the railings, skipping the crowd. She looked down, and realizing that there was no clean landing, she simply dropped and hit a karakasa youkai heavily, forcing it to break her landing. "Sorry!" she yelled, and kept going.

She wondered how her father would get into Miyani's study, if the door was locked. That meant that she had to find those keys as fast as she could. But the second floor was terrible. There was a mad rush for the stairs here, shoving their way into the stairwell and trampling small youkai underfoot.

Still, Koishi doggedly pushed her way through. Past the screams of "Oh, please, for the love of god, hurry UP!" and "Madonna mia, aiutami!", wrenching her shirt free from the hand of an elderly satori who yelled at her, "No time for running downstairs! You'll die!", and sneaking her way through the crowd, she reached the final flight of stairs-

Just then, a tremendous crash. A tremor ran through the crowd of youkai and satori, and there a mad rush towards the stairs, panicked screams ruling the atmosphere. What was going on? Koishi did her best to not get trampled, then reached a hand out to the railing of the final staircase and clung to it as satori and youkai swept past her. Gathering her determination, she walked over the railing and slid down on the banisters again.

But she only got halfway down. Good thing, too. But from here, Koishi could still see everything happening on the first floor.

The crash had been the obsidian front gate to the palace shattering into a million pieces. The mad rush had been in response to the swarming in of all these demons, who laughed gleefully and set about the task of slaughtering everyone in the palace. She registered, dimly, that shapes were climbing up the sides of the palace from the outside, but that was a problem for everyone else up there. Right now, she was seeing youkai and satori alike being butchered by the demons of Makai. And more horrifyingly, the satori's final thoughts were coming straight at her through her Third Eye with such clarity that it almost seemed that she was the one thinking them. The abruptness of the end of those thoughts was haunting.

"Oh god I'm going to die please don't let me die please I don't want to di

"Don't kill me don't kill me don't kill me don't

"It cannot end like this! Where is the army, where are our defenders, oh god claws into my face my eyes oh god it hurts it hurts it hur

"My blood I'm losing so much blood please let it end quickly let it end quickly let it end qui

Koishi shook with fear, more from the thoughts of the satori than the screams of those being killed. She clamped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for it to end, begging for it to end. She didn't even notice that slowly, all those thoughts were ceasing. She didn't even notice that slowly, the noise level began to go down.

But when she opened her eyes again, she saw a maid smiling at her.

"Aah!" Koishi screamed and tried to scramble backwards. But she was only on the landing of the first staircase. Upstairs, the floor was strangely quiet. An enormous demon blocked her way up, to her left, and before her was...

"Hello, little miss," the maid in red said with a pleasant smile on her face. Koishi saw that she had a sword of some sort in her right hand, to her side, and blood was dripping off of it, along with other assorted pieces of... Koishi shook her head.

"What's your name, little miss?"

Koishi shook her head. The maid laughed and kneeled down in front of her.

"My name is Yumeko, and I am head maid to the Vermeil Devil, Shinki of Makai."

The little satori shook. The maid grinned, seemingly not noticing the coppery smell of blood hanging in the air. Or worse- maybe she did.

"You're pretty young, aren't you?" Yumeko went on, not seeming to care if Koishi responded or not. "Funny... I thought satori didn't reproduce except maybe once every three decades or so... guess that means you, eh?" The woman - she had to be a youkai - ruffled Koishi's hair affectionately. Koishi suddenly wished she was wearing a hat or something to keep this woman's hand off.

"Huh," the maid said. "I didn't know that satori have streaked white hair."

Koishi didn't know what she was talking about, but she wanted to squirm away from the woman. Still, if she moved... she eyed the bloody knife in Yumeko's hand. She may not have understand all the mechanics of death, but she did know that she didn't want her throat ripped open-!

"Funny," Yumeko mused, still playing with Koishi's hair, "You remind me a lot of Alice. Shinki's daughter. You're around her age... I wonder if you wouldn't make a bad playmate for her."

Koishi looked up quickly. Yumeko laughed. But before Yumeko could continue, there came a screeching growl from upstairs. It was at that point that Koishi noticed that there were no more echoing, panicked thoughts coming from the second floor, and no more screaming. The maid looked up at the demon who was delivering the report.

"Yumeko, we have taken the first, second, third, and fifth floors. The fourth floor-" The screeching growl, so loud that it made Koishi wince in pain - "It is ours. The sixth floor upwards is still packed with refugees. I can smell the fear on them."

The maid smirked. "Wonderful. I'll be right there." She turned her attention back to Koishi, her yellow eyes filled with mirth.

"Well, I know you'd love to be friends with Alice," the maid said, wiping her sword on the carpeted stairs. "But..."

Koishi gave a small start as she saw the knife's gleaming. It matched the light in Yumeko's eyes. Cold terror suddenly made its way into her, like a freezing hand had suddenly reached into her chest and squeezed her heart as hard as it could.

She knew she was going to die. Right here. Right now.

"N-no," she murmured, trying to crawl backwards.

"Ah! It speaks," Yumeko smiled. But the smile did not reach her eyes. "I would love to take you home to Makai to be Alice's toy. But, you see, I've been ordered to kill every satori in Chireiden. And you, my dear, are a satori."

Yumeko brought the knife to Koishi's eye level.

"Alt," Koishi asked numbly, getting her languages mixed up. "Please stop. _Alt_. _Per favore_, stop. Stop."

The maid smiled. That smile, combined with the sudden thought in Yumeko's head about how perhaps this girl's throat would be rosy red on the inside, made Koishi start sobbing.

"_AIUTO_! HELP ME! _AIUTAMI_! HELP! HELP ME!" Koishi screamed, knowing that she was only a few moments from becoming what Yumeko's mind already looked foward to.

"No one is coming to save you," Yumeko said, bringing her knife down and closer to Koishi.

"_AIUTAMI_!" Koishi yelled as loudly as she could, feeling a cold metal on the side of her throat. "_I DON'T WANT TO DIE_!"

Yumeko's smile was now as cold as the knife. Koishi heard the words in her mind before the maid said them aloud.

"_Buona notte_," was what Koishi heard in her mind. "Good night," is what Yumeko said aloud as she pulled the knife across Koishi's throat. 

* * *

Ugh, I have work for the next three days- I work at a baseball stadium, and over the weekend, there's going to be a major game, and we're expecting a crowd well over 40,000 people. This is going to be tiring... ah well. Writing refreshes my soul, so I guess I'll look forward to next Thursday~


	4. Act I, Part 4

Because when things start to head south, they do it _fast_.

* * *

Yumeko's thoughts were so filled with the idea of cutting off small strips of the neck-flesh of this satori girl and slicing each piece apart in front of her eyes, then rubbing her knife into the cuts, and slowly, ever so slowly, relishing the pain in the girl's eyes that she forgot that she was in a rush to take the Palace. And it was only after she remembered that, that Yumeko realized that Koishi was no longer actually there. 

Instead, what was there in her hand, across which she had her knife, was a grinning blue skull, sheathed in blue flame. Not a pale pink-and-white-haired satori girl. 

Yumeko had no time to react before the skull detonated, sending her flying into the air and into the chandelier of the first floor of the Palace. Her troops didn't fare so well, either, being thrown every which way by the blast. But she didn't care about them. Ignoring the shards of glass and torn metal digging into her body, she sat up in the chandelier, screaming, "WHERE DID SHE GO? DID ANYONE SEE WHERE SHE WENT?" 

Then the chandelier's support cable, strained by Yumeko's weight, snapped and dropped the chandelier, and Yumeko, straight onto the floor at least ten meters below. 

And then the base of the chandelier fell too. 

Yumeko's howl of pain was heard from miles around. 

"Geez! That was a close one, sis!" 

"RIN!" Koishi yelled, excited, opening her eyes to see the grinning catgirl in front of her. She had closed her eyes, presumably for the last time, right as Yumeko had begun to draw the knife across her throat. And then she had smelled the scent of smoke and a faint trace of something decomposing, and had felt the shaking, rattling, and rolling of a wheelbarrow beneath her. 

And indeed, that's where she was now. Riding in the cat-cart Rin Kaenbyou- or as she preferred to be called, Orin - was pulling along behind her, up the side of the wall on the outside of the Palace. 

"How are - come-" Koishi tried to ask how they were doing this, still in shocked happiness that she wasn't dead at Yumeko's hands. "_É possibile_?" 

"It has NOTHING to do with logic and EVERYTHING to do with being fast as HELL ITSELF!" Orin yelled back cheerfully. "Now, hold tight, sis, 'cause we're goin' for a RIIIIIIIIDE!" 

Koishi let out a yell of exhilaration and relief as Orin kicked in a stained-glass window, smashing it into a million pieces of colored glass, and charged right onto the fourth floor, blazing right past the shocked demons and tossing a ton of her little blue skull heads - which were, in reality, bombs, as Yumeko had figured out three floors below - into the hands of the demon guard, who were too startled to do anything else and too stupid to figure out what she was doing. 

"_ZAY GESUNT_!" Orin hollered happily as she raced to the other side of the room, seemingly unbothered by all the corpses her cat-cart was bumping against as she went. Koishi tried not to look any more, but she couldn't keep her eyes off of the unseeing eyes, normal and Third eyes, that she saw scattered all over the floor. 

The sound of glass breaking startled her out of it, though. They were on the other side of the palace, again racing their way up the impossibly vertical wall. Since Koishi was sitting in the cat-cart away from Orin, holding on so tightly her knuckles were pale white, she saw the windows of the fourth floor all simultaneously break and blue flame burst out from within them. 

"WHOO-HOO!" Orin cheered as she continued her impossible climb. 

"ORIN!" Koishi cried out. "_COSA SUCCEDÉ_?" 

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST ASK?" Orin yelled in reply. 

Koishi cursed herself for forgetting, however briefly, that only the satori nobles spoke that language. "WHAT IS GOING ON?" she repeated, just as Orin kicked in another window, this time on the fifth floor. Drawing more of her skulls from within her dress, Orin repeated the toss-and-run process she had pulled on the floor below, this time throwing a few at the heads of the demons who had congregated on the staircase to the fourth floor, wondering what had happened. Then she made a run for it and emerged on the other side once more. 

"WE'RE GIVING THAT MAID A HELL OF A TIME CHASING AFTER US!" Orin replied. 

"_PERCHÉ_? I MEAN, BUT WHY? WE'RE GOING TO GET KILLED IN THE END ANYWAY!" 

Orin spared a split second to turn back and smile crookedly at Koishi. "_BESER TSU SHTARBN SHTEYENDIK VI TSU LEBN AF DI KNI_!" 

It was Koishi's turn to stare blankly at the kasha. "WHAT?" 

"IT'S A HELLCAT THING! 'BETTER TO DIE ON YOUR FEET THAN TO LIVE ON YOUR KNEES'!" Orin tossed back a thumbs-up. "'SIDES, I'LL TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY AFTER YOU DIE!" 

"Isn't that comforting," Koishi murmured. She knew exactly what Orin would do with her corpse after she died. But still, she felt a bit better. She could have died right there, an inglorious, meaningless death like everyone else in the Palace- but now, if she was killed, it would be in open defiance, resisting until the end. Below her, the BOOM of the fifth floor bombs going off only seemed to confirm her decision. 

The thought of living just a bit longer like this put a smile on her face. Just in time for Orin to kick in the next floor's windows, breaking them in a shower of colored glass shards, and repeat the process. Koishi noticed that there were actually a few satori and youkai still alive, but that was only because Yumeko's demons hadn't attacked this floor yet. Orin took care to toss her bombs all to the other side of the room, where the demons actually were, and trust that the satori and youkai would come out safely. 

But this time, when they came out, someone was waiting for them. 

She had a smile on her face, to be sure. She was blonde, wearing a rather meaningless white summer hat on her head and a mostly white dress with a purple sailor cape at the neck. More importantly, she had a huge crossbow in her hands, and at least three arrows nocked on the taut string. 

"_ATTENZIONE_!" Koishi screamed, and this time, Orin didn't need a translation. 

"FFFF- AUGH! BE CAREFUL, DAMNIT!" 

Yumeko screamed full-force into Mai's ear, who winced. "Ow. Fine, fine." Then she continued yanking the particularly large pieces of glass out of Yumeko's legs and arms. 

The maid leaned back, gritting her teeth against the pain. "Oh good gods DAMN that hurt!" she hissed as Mai unlodged another shard of glass. She was a youkai, and she could heal herself quite easily and quickly, but she couldn't do that if the glass was still stuck in there. She was a bit lucky that Mai had chosen that very moment to come down from the air for a status report. Yumeko would not have trusted any of these huge, scaly demons with so delicate a task. 

"It would be a bit easier if you would stop- SQUIRMING!" Mai snapped as she pulled out another piece. "Jeez, Yumeko, how did you get yourself flung into the chandelier? No spellcard has the ability, or the force, to do that." 

Yumeko shook her head. "Who the hell cares? All I know is- AAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" She screeched again as a glass shard touched a vein. She tried her best to resist the urge to plunge a knife into Mai's forehead. "AAAAAUGH!" 

The blue-haired witch sensed that Yumeko's self-restraint was at its limit and quickly backed off. "That's all for now. Too bad, but it looks like you won't be able to walk for a while... or move any hand other than that throwing hand of yours." 

Yumeko put her hand on her forehead; the only hand she could move. The other one was still studded with shrapnel and glass. "Aaaargh... that's what I was worried about. God damn-" She closed her eyes. 

"Torch the place," she said. Mai blinked, not sure she knew what Yumeko was talking about. "What was that, Yumeko?" 

"I said TORCH THE GOD DAMN PLACE! BURN THIS PALACE TO THE FUCKING GROUND!" Yumeko screamed, her nerves finally strained to the breaking point. "BURN EVERYONE ALIVE UP THERE!" 

"Ye- yes," Mai stammered, backing away. "Shall I-" 

"NOW!" Yumeko screeched, sweat visibly breaking out on her forehead. "Tell Luize to be on the guard for anyone who tries to throw themselves out a window and tell her to SHOOT THEM DOWN!" 

Mai nodded up and down and ran out to deliver the message to Luize, only to be stopped by bumping into- 

"Yuki? Luize? What are you doing down here?" 

The black-white witch hurried past her, ignoring Mai's question entirely, and went straight to Yumeko. Luize, behind her, looked just as worried. 

"Yumeko, Luize's seen something bad." 

Now Mai and Yumeko were looking intently at Yuki. The witch gulped and met Yumeko's gaze. 

"We've just seen the Chireiden army returning in the distance." 

For a moment, there was silence, then a huge BOOM was heard from far above. Maybe the fifth floor? Whatever the case, it galvanized Yumeko into action. The maid cleared her throat. Yumeko the commander was back. "Yuki, use your magic and set this Palace on fire, and you, Mai, carry me out and then go knock down some stalactites. Luize, go shoot anyone down who might want to escape by jumping out the window. The rest of you... it's time for some actual WAR!" 

The sound of their cheering must have echoed for a good ways around even as Yuki began to light the first few sparks.

* * *

As promised in the summary of this story, the Palace of the Earth Spirits shall be set ablaze. _Now_ things are really going to start getting fun, I promise.

Thank you for your reading this far! Please look forward to the next update!


End file.
